Sport - Cricket

Laxman shows his class

— Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

Acrobatic effort: Rajasthan’s Gajendra Singh comes up with this effort to send back T. Suman of Hyderabad in their Ranji Trophy match on Sunday.

HYDERABAD: V. V. S. Laxman’s unbeaten 96 and adequate help from its frontline batsmen helped Hyderabad post 273 for three at close against Rajasthan on the first day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Super League Group ‘A’ match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday.

First, opener T. Suman (50, 152 min, 100 balls, 8 x 4) made batting look so simple and easy with his flamboyance early on in the innings as he walked into extravagant strokes on either side of the wicket against both pace and spin.

His partner D.B. Ravi Teja failing to build on after a breezy start on what looks a perfect batting strip. He was bowled, playing across the line to medium-pacer Sumit Mathur, who was easily the most impressive of the fast bowlers.

At the stroke of lunch, Suman threw his wicket away mistiming a pull off Pankaj Singh to be caught brilliantly in the deep by Gajendra Singh.

From then on, captain Laxman (96 batting, 213min, 154b, 10x4) held centrestage. He was extremely cautious to start with, the first boundary coming after 71 minutes at the crease.

But, it was obvious he preferred to be more of a guiding force to the young left-handed S. Anoop Pai (85, 265min, 212b, 7x4) who rose to the occasion.

He cut down on all the risky strokes, treating the bowling on merit with great confidence. He was lucky to be dropped by wicket-keeper Nikhil Doru off left-arm spinner Gajendra Singh, trying to cut, when he was on 18.

Just when he looked good for his second century of the season, Anoop was gobbled up smartly by Rajasthan captain Y. Venugopala Rao at lone slip off Gajendra Singh.

The scores: